Wednesday, June 12, 2013

More on that pulled BBC documentary

POLITICS: BBC Director General faces claims that political pressure led BBC to drop film on 'Jewish exile' (Middle East Monitor).
Six leading pro-Palestinian organisations have written to the BBC's Director General asking for answers over the pulling of a documentary which claims that the mass Jewish exodus from Jerusalem in 70 AD may never have happened.

The documentary, Jerusalem: An Archaeological Mystery Story, was due to be shown on BBC Four, but disappeared from the schedule at the last minute, leaving viewers confused.

Its director, Ilan Ziv, has accused the BBC of bowing to political pressure in its decision to suddenly remove a film which it had been promoting widely.

[...]
As near as I can figure out, the issue here is that the documentary "theorizes that many Jews did not leave Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple, and that many modern-day Palestinians may be in part descended from those Jews." (From a JTA article noted here). Presumably this notion (I am not ready to call it a "theory") coheres with the Palestinian narrative and thus the protests from Palestinian groups over the documentary not being aired. But it is still not clear to me exactly why the BBC pulled the show in the first place. Follow the last link for earlier coverage of the story and more comments from me.